The perception that only elite schools produce elite leaders needs to die. The No. 1 company in last year’s Fortune 500 was Walmart Inc., with $500 billion in revenue. That would make its chief executive, Douglas McMillon, a pretty important and powerful executive, don’t you think? Can you guess where he went to college? The University of Arkansas. He has an MBA, too. From the University of Tulsa. Second on the list was Exxon Mobil Corp. Its CEO, Darren Woods, went to Texas A&M. Third was Berkshire Hathaway Inc., run by the man many consider the greatest investor who ever...

Pretty much any subject, stupid humor is fine, general stupidity not so much, and please no snarking, that's directed at you snarky SOBs. Someone used to do a thread like this every year, but, alas, he got banned. The good news (for me, anyway) is I just noticed that a really big butthole (not the same FReeper) got banned for NeverTrumping back in 2016, and I hadn't missed the ******* at all. That got me thinking, because the predictions thread guy also got booted for NeverTrumpism, if memory serves (not sure, I think I'd already been kicked out for something...

Boeing is set to debut its biggest plane ever next month, and the 777X has finally been paired with the gargantuan GE9X engine that will propel its flight. The plane is currently housed in Boeing's Everett, Washington, assembly plant, where pictures show it looming over workers as they prepare it for its maiden flight. The GE9X engine is the biggest turbine engine in the world. At roughly the size of an entire Boeing 737's fuselage, it was subjected to test flights last March when a single turbine was hitched to a 747 testbed. The engine includes a composite fan more...

One thing IÂ’ve seen over and over again in my career as a journalist and investor is the well-documented phenomenon of Wall Street analyst Â“pile-ons.Â”You know, where a stock is headed unsustainably higher and higher Â— and analysts outdo each other raising their price targets.It happens in the other direction too, where analysts come up with all sorts of reasons to justify why a companyÂ’s stock will head lower and lower.ThatÂ’s certainly the case with General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) these days.A shareholder would seemingly have to be stupid, crazy or Â“very, very braveÂ” (as Vanity FairÂ’s finance writer...

New York University student senators passed a resolution Thursday in support of the university divesting from three companies associated with the Israeli government and instituting a “socially responsible” investment policy. Israeli-affiliated companies named in the resolution included Caterpillar, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin. Only NYU students were allowed to attend the senate meeting, each senator's vote remained anonymous, and those who wished to address the room were limited to two minutes when speaking. The meeting, which was expected to last for about two hours, was ultimately extended until it spanned nearly three-and-a-half hours.

Stocks rose sharply on Monday as investors cheered news of Canada joining a trade deal with the United States and Mexico. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 264 points as American Express and Boeing outperformed. The S&P 500 gained 0.8 percent, led by 1 percent jumps in materials and industrials. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7 percent as Amazon and Apple both climbed more than 1 percent. "The biggest risk factor [in the market] is a trade war and we've dialed that down a bit," said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners. Bailey noted, however, the market may...

The Boston-based company discovered an "oxidation issue" that could cause distress on blade components of the HA gas turbine. GE launched the HA turbine in 2016 and has received orders for more than 80 turbines, more than half of which have already shipped to customers in the U.S., Europe and Asia. "Obviously, this was a frustrating development, for us, as well as for our customers," GE Power CEO Russell Stokes wrote in a LinkedIn post. "But we have identified a fix and have been working proactively with HA operators to address impacted turbines." "A few weeks ago, there was an...

GE on path to reduce debt by $25 billion GE's turnaround strategy is becoming clear. The company announced plans on Tuesday to spin off its health-care unit and separate its stake in oil services company Baker Hughes over the next two to three years. GE will focus its operations on the aviation, power and renewable energy businesses. “Today marks an important milestone in GE’s history. We are aggressively driving forward as an aviation, power and renewable energy company — three highly complementary businesses poised for future growth. We will continue to improve our operations and balance sheet as we make...

After more than a hundred years as a component in the Dow Jones industrial average, General Electric will be replaced by drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance next week. But GE investors may take solace in the recent history of stock price out performance from the companies booted from the Dow. On Tuesday David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement adding Walgreens to the Dow Jones industrial average will make the index "more representative of the consumer and health-care sectors of the U.S. economy." "Today's change to the (Dow...

For the first time in 110 years, General Electric will not be a member of the elite Dow Jones Industrial Average. S&P Dow Jones Indices announced on Tuesday that the iconic maker of light bulbs and jet engines will be replaced in the 30-stock index by Walgreens Boots Alliance. GE (GE) was an original member of the Dow in 1896 and has been in it continuously since November 7, 1907. Being ousted from the Dow is the latest indignity for GE, which is dealing with a serious cash crisis caused by years of bad deals. GE has replaced its CEO,...

General Electric's (GE - Get Report) Aviation unit, one of the few businesses in which the troubled conglomerate is making money, is poised to take advantage of the engine problems suffered by a chief rival. Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, GE's biggest competitor in airplane engines, said Monday that all 166 of the engines it built for Boeing's fleet of 787 Dreamliners must be grounded pending inspection of a faulty part. The British manufacturer's misfortune provides a rare opportunity for a win for GE, who makes the only engine interchangeable with Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000. "It's hard to make the direct connection to...

It’s a bad day for a CEO when he announces he’s retiring and the stock goes up. That was Jeff Immelt’s day on June 12, 2017. The news of his departure was in one sense no surprise—some investors and analysts had been urging his ouster for years;but it was also a shock. He’d been General Electric’s CEO for almost 16 years, and outsiders were unaware of any specific succession plans or that ­Immelt, at age 61, had any intention of stepping down. Suddenly they were told that in just seven weeks he’d be gone as CEO (he remained nonexecutive board...

If your hackles are not yet up concerning the outlook for highly indebted multinational companies such as GE in a possible looming crisis of 2018, they ought to be.Â Â From September 2008 until recently, we operated in a new world without traditional controls, prepared to believe everything and happy to own almost anything.Â Â Skeptics were mocked, as markets rocked. However, in recent months, benchmark interest rates in the United States â€“ the largest market in the world â€“ are trending upward after ten years at historic low levels.Â Â As interest rates rise, most asset values will fall.Â Â Declining asset values are especiallyÂ worryingÂ for complex...

General Electric Co. announced Thursday that it will cut 12,000 jobs from power division amid a global softening of electricity demand and the switch from coal and other fossil fuels. "The plans announced today are driven by challenges in the power market worldwide," the manufacturing giant said. "Traditional power markets including gas and coal have softened. Volumes are down significantly in products and services driven by overcapacity, lower utilization, fewer outages, an increase in steam plant retirements, and overall growth in renewables." The company said Thursday that the cuts will "right-size" GE Power amid the transition taking place in the...

They say that "life imitates art"...or is it the other way around...the lines are getting so blurred. In any event, we thought we would take this opportunity to highlight some of the most startling discoveries we found so far in Doug Stamper's...sorry, John Podesta's emails. You have to admit there are some similarities there and they even have the same position...hopefully the Clinton Foundation is receiving royalties from HBO... Yesterday we pointed out the many amazing one-liners offered up by Hillary as she was out collecting millions of dollars for her "Wall Street speeches." Here is an expanded sample: Hillary...

“I’ll vote for Donald Trump, absolutely, not a question,” Welch said in the interview. “I’d vote for just about any human being against Hillary Clinton in this election.” Welch said it’s not too late for Trump to convince skeptical Americans that he is better than Clinton. "Show the American people how he's going to create jobs, a better economy and a better life for all of them," Welch said. "Get back on the real issues,” he said. “I am behind the Republican candidate. Any Republican candidate,” he said. “I can't have eight more years of this. I don't want eight...

Boeing aims to broadly replace its 757 model, a top-end narrow-body jet with a single aisle. The new model would try to rewrite airplane economics by being wide enough for two aisles to seat seven people in each row, but able to produce the skintight margins of a smaller single-aisle, six-abreast plane such as the workhorse Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Airbus calls the project a bluff and says it reflects Boeing's frustration at losing market share to its A321. One of the designs on Boeing's drawing board is an unusually oval-shaped cross-section, rather than a rounder shape typical of...

As General Electric gears up to move its headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., to Boston, the people and communities being left behind are dreading the pain to come. John Engel, a real estate agent and town councilor in nearby New Canaan, told public radio's "Marketplace" that the departure of 800 GE executives, most of whom will likely list their homes for sale, will send the local housing market staggering. Once the region loses millions of dollars in disposable income, it will ineluctably lose much of the business those dollars sustained. There will be fewer patrons to fill local restaurants, for example,...

Blaming Congress' impasse on the Export-Import Bank, General Electric (NYSE:GE) said that it will move 500 U.S. jobs, some of which are deep in the heart of Texas, overseas to Europe and China in order to avoid losing business to foreign companies. The Lone Star State is one of the losers in GE's announcement Tuesday, as the U.S.-based jobs will be shipped from Texas, South Carolina, New York and Maine to France, Hungary and China. Lawmakers from Texas also have been vocal critics of the Ex-Im Bank.

Neither Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings nor officials from General Electric would confirm on Friday reports that General Electric Co. had decided against relocating its global headquarters to the city because of Texas politicians’ opposition to the Export-Import Bank. Republicans Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Sen. Ted Cruz have each been outspoken in their opposition to the Ex-Im Bank, a federal agency that offers loans, loan guarantees and credit insurance to help U.S. firms sell their products overseas. Hensarling’s opposition to the bank has grown from a small movement two years ago to a full-scale rebellion, dismaying the bank’s supporters among major...